


On The Cusp

by Kittendiamore



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 15:43:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11694795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittendiamore/pseuds/Kittendiamore
Summary: The thing about Damianos Akielos is that he is a Hot Commodity. There’s probably a 30 page waiting list out there of people who want a chance to date him. The only problem is that since the age of fourteen, he’s never been single for more than a week. A week!“He sounds great,” the bartender says, polishing a glass. Laurent realises that he’s been speaking out loud. He is drunk. He also realises that this bartender - Rick, or Mick, or Mike, or whatever his nametag says, words are a little blurry at this point - doesn’t realise the magnitude of the situation at hand.Damen Akielos is Single, Facebook says.“He’s single,” Laurent says.





	On The Cusp

The thing about Damianos Akielos is that he is a Hot Commodity. There’s probably a 30 page waiting list out there of people who want a chance to date him. The only problem is that since the age of fourteen, he’s never been single for more than a week. A week!

“He sounds great,” the bartender says, polishing a glass. Laurent realises that he’s been speaking out loud. He is drunk. He also realises that this bartender - Rick, or Mick, or Mike, or whatever his nametag says, words are a little blurry at this point - doesn’t realise the magnitude of the situation at hand.

“He _is_ great,” Laurent says. “When he broke up with his foreign exchange girlfriend in college, he was in this bar, and this guy was getting harassed, and he helped out of course, because he’s wonderful. Literally, all he did was walk this guy home and, bam, new boyfriend! He was single for less than two hours.”

“Well, shit, dude.”

“I’ve been waiting for my chance for years, Mike - I’ve had a crush on him since I was like twelve, and I’m always too late. Now look at this,” Laurent shows Rick his phone. Or what’s on his phone: _Damen Akielos is Single,_ Facebook says _._

“He’s single,” Laurent says.

“Nice, man.”

“It’s not nice,” Laurent says. “He’s finally broken up with Jokaste and I can’t even do anything about it because here I am: too drunk to stand.”

“What? Seriously?” the bartender says, “I should _not_ have been serving you.”

“I have remarkable self control,” Laurent says, “I can enunciate quite well while drunk.”

“Well good for you. Do you need a cab?”

“My brother is picking me up, but that’s beside the point. The point is that I’ve missed my window of opportunity yet again.”

“Just message him now, tell him you want to bone.”

“I can’t do that, I’m drunk.”

“So?” The bartender asks.

“Good point,” Laurent says, or thinks - it all gets a little blurry at this point. He remembers typing on his phone after that and that’s about where his memory ends.

-

Laurent is not a drinker. He’d much rather stay in reading than go out and “get rekt with the boys”.

Unfortunately, he’s always stubborn and competitive, and when his gruff neighbour Makedon implies that Laurent wouldn’t be able to handle his uncle’s new home brew spirit, well.

Somehow that results in them moving onto a bar, and then eventually Makedon disappears with some lady and Laurent gets left at his counter seat at three a.m, venting to a bartender and waiting for Auguste to arrive.

It’s safe to say the ensuing hangover is the worst of Laurent’s life. Between the bottle of water and painkillers that Auguste has left beside his bed, Laurent manages to crawl his way into his high-pressured shower and languish on the tiled floor while his head clears.

It’s then that he remembers the facebook post.

_Damen Akielos is Single_

_Nikandros Delpha_ want me to come over?

_Lykaios Alanis_ I hope you’re okay :(( <3 <3

_Laurent De Vere_ if you want to have rebound sex, i’m free tomorrow night ;*

(“Add that emoji, y’know, the winky kissy face,” the bartender - who didn’t get paid nearly enough to care about things like this - said.

“Really?” Laurent asked.

“Trust me on this.”)

Laurent was fairly sure he didn’t want to scroll down any further. He was, in fact, just about ready to change his name and move to another country. And yet.

_Nikandros Delpha_ DON’T YOU DARE, DAMEN

_Auguste De Vere_ Hahahahaha!! Learn to private message, little bro.

And then:

_Damen Akielos_ At least Laurent has my back, guys!! <3 :’)

“What the fuck,” Laurent says, “does that even mean?”

-

If one wanted a visual representation of Laurent’s relationship with Damen, it would be the photo in his parent’s house of teenaged Auguste and Damen with their arms around each other’s shoulders, grinning and athletic, while Laurent is somewhere in the background reading something way out of his age range.

Except that’s not entirely true, because Laurent would never lower himself to crush on a guy who never gave him the time of day (no matter how perfectly dimpled that guy was). It’s just a bit of an inferiority complex to get over, when both Damen and his brother are perfect in that sports magazine photoshoot kind of way. The photographers wouldn’t even need extra lighting, not with the way Damen lit up a room just by smiling in it.

That’s not the point though. The point is, Laurent has been sitting on tise infatuation for about ten years, but he’s been sitting on it like that kid in the background of a photo. He’s always thought, y’know, Damen is kind and beautiful and confident, and if he had even a smidge of non-platonic feelings for Laurent then he would have made a move himself. Except now Laurent has pretty much given Damen a public invitation to bone, and there is one (1) unread text message on Laurent’s phone.

No big deal. Laurent just needs to gather the courage to read it. He’s cursing the fact that he keeps his read receipts on (because nothing sends quite an eloquent ‘go fuck yourself’ as a _seen 2_ : _16pm_ ) as he’d kind of like a sufficient amount of time to decide what to say to whatever Damen has sent him without it looking like he’s ignoring him. If Damen even checks things like that.

Instead, he sends a quick text to Auguste:

Laurent [15:08]: Can one make an insanity plea on a regrettable facebook message? Asking for a friend.

Auguste [15:10]: I didn’t know you had friends!!!

Laurent [15:10]: …

Laurent [15:11]: New question: is it possible to get emancipated from your own brother? Asking for

myself.

Auguste [15:12]: I’M SORRY. I LOVE YOU.

Laurent [15:12]: But seriously, how do I un-awkward that whole facebook comment situation?

Auguste [15:13]: Oh you want to make the situation less awkward?? So…I should /not/ play Careless Whisper every time you two are in a room together??? Bc I’ve already downloaded the song and everything.

Laurent [15:15]: Nevermind, I’ll just ask google about the sibling emancipation thing.

Auguste [15:15]: NOOOOOOoooooo

Well, if Auguste wasn’t taking it seriously, it at least meant that Damen wasn’t freaking out about the facebook comment or-

Laurent finally clicked into the message from Damen.

Damen [14:06]: But since you’re apparently free tonight, pity party at mine w the boys. Come round whenever ;)))))

\- or, Damen was taking it like a joke. Awesome.

No, this was fine, really. It’s not like he was actually hoping that something would come out of this. It’s better that they can treat it like a joke. Laurent just has to play it cool.

Laurent [15:21]: Should I bring ice-cream and rom-coms?

Damen [15:22]: You’re joking, but you know how I feel about Ben and Jerry’s.

Laurent [15:23]: Strawberry Cheesecake?

Damen [15:23]: <3 <3 You know me, baby.

Laurent almost hates the way his heart rate reacts to those words. Fuck playing it cool, he thinks. Laurent didn’t get to the top of his classes at uni by playing it cool. He’s a man who knows what he wants and goes for it. Laurent De Vere is no joke. Damen better be ready.

-

“Shit,” Lazar says, when he sees Laurent. “You bought ice-cream. Nikandros may have to give up his position as Damen’s best friend.”

“Hey!” Nikandros says.

“It’s already been given up to me,” Laurent says, dropping the ice-cream - and his coat - into Lazar’s hands. “I didn’t see any of you offering rebound sex.”

Lazar hangs the coat, looking confused as to why he’s actually doing it while he does. Laurent has that way with people.

“Laurent!” Damen says, choosing that moment to appear and throw Laurent into a hug. Damen should be known for his hugs. Laurent’s feet actually leave the ground a little. He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t at least a somewhat thrilling embrace.

Damen’s apartment building is one of those cold white-tile, white-wall, modern extravaganzas that tend to always look like personality-less display homes. But of course, Damen being Damen, he’s actually managed to make the place look alluringly lived-in. All the furniture is warmly toned and built for comfort. There’s a cat somewhere - Damen had wanted a dog, but Jokaste was allergic -, and then there’s The Wall. A literal entire wall that’s covered with photos of friends and family (who even prints out photos anymore? Sentimental idiots like Damen, that’s who), and Laurent is always secretly pleased with how many pictures he features in.

Auguste and Jord are trying to find and pull down every picture with Jokaste.

“Do you want a drink?” Damen asks.

“No, thank you,” Laurent says, primly.

Auguste starts laughing. He doesn’t even turn around. “He’s hungover,” he says. “You should have seen him last night, Damen, it was amazing. I wish I’d filmed it.”

Auguste is the best brother that Laurent could have asked for. He’s loving and protective, and pretty much constantly smiling and telling Laurent gross things like how proud he is. But he’s also Laurent’s brother, and unfortunately the role of brother comes with things like being supremely embarrassing.

“I wasn’t that bad,” Laurent says. But Damen is laughing in that head-thrown back, carefree way that’s probably a good sign so soon after a break up, so Laurent can forgive Auguste a little.

-

The proclaimed Pity Party, is pretty much a group hang with extra ice-cream and extra judgement about Jokaste. From what Laurent’s gathered, the break up is because it turns out that Jokaste was having disturbing to imagine sex with Damen’s brother.

At one point, when everyone else is preoccupied with something (Laurent can hear Nikandros, Lazar and Pallas going through things Jokaste left behind in the bedroom, and discussing what can and can’t feasibly be burned), Damen finds him.

“You’re on uni break, right?” Damen asks.

The benefits of being born into an indecently rich family is that Laurent can afford to study without having to work as well. At the end of the year, he’ll have a master’s degree and a place in one of his family’s offices.

“I am.”

“So,” Damen says, a little drunkenly. Laurent kind of wishes this weren’t a no-phone affair, so that he could see who it is that Damen would drunk text. “Jo was always like, mad at me because I work all the time and I’m always on call and all that,” Damen was a doctor at the local hospital, as if he weren’t already perfect enough he had to also go and save lives on a regular basis, “and I felt like a suitably shitty boyfriend, so I decided to surprise her by taking two weeks off right in time for her break.”

“Ah,” Laurent says. He’s going to murder Jokaste himself. Or maybe just leave catty comments on her instagram posts - that always riles her up.

Damen looks at him for a long moment and then says, deadpan: “I’m trying to garner enough pity so you invite me to hang with you for the free time that I now have.”

“I’ll consider it,” Laurent says, mentally fist-pumping.

“If it helps my cause, I can tell you that I found out about the affair because I went to Jo’s place to surprise her and walked in on them having sex.”

“Jesus,” Laurent says. “Now I’m picturing it. Is Kastor disturbingly hairy? Because that’s how I’m imagining him.”

Damen laughs. There’s always that small burst of pleasure at making Damen laugh, like Laurent has accomplished something grand.

“We can get lunch tomorrow, if you want,” Laurent says, when Damen’s finished.

“Yes,” he grins.

“Damen!” Auguste calls, drunk and from the kitchen. “I’ve alcoholised your ice-cream. It’s revolutionary.”

“Oh, God,” Damen says, looking both intrigued and horrified.

“We’ll make it 2pm,” Laurent says, “in respect to your soon to be hangover.”

And Damen is smiling at Laurent again, and cupping his face in his big hands, before he kisses Laurent quite sweetly on the nose. He’s always been overly affectionate - it’s both a blessing and a curse. “You’re the best,” Damen says. And then he’s bounding away to the kitchen.

“I call it the Avocado Martini," Auguste is saying.

“Affogato,” Jord corrects him.

And Laurent, from his spot on the living room couch and unseen by anyone else, smiles.

-

Damen shows up to their 2pm lunch date (not a date) with a large pair of sunglasses on. Laurent, who would normally judge, is still traumatised from his Makedon-inspired hangover two nights prior and is actually kind of impressed that Damen managed to dress himself and arrive on time.

“Normally, I adore you hair,” Damen says, when they meet out front. “But today it’s much too bright. Can you turn it down a little?”

“No,” Laurent says.

The waitress greets them at the door and Laurent asks for their darkest, quietest table.

“Thank you,” Damen tells the waitress when she comes through for them, with the earnest sincerity that Laurent loves and hates so much. “You’ve saved my life.”

The waitress appears a little unsteady after the full force of Damen’s charisma. Laurent is going to be livid if Damen picks up his next beau in front of him.

They sit down and the waitress goes to get their drinks, and Damen gives Laurent his trademark grin.

“Thank you for coming last night,” he says.

If Damen had taken Laurent up on his drunk facebook offer, he could have come in a totally different sense of the word. If only. “Of course,” Laurent says, “You asked.”

“Still,” Damen says, “I appreciate it. I know you don’t really enjoying hanging out with us when we’re all getting drunk. And that weird rivalry thing you have going on with Nikandros.”

The issue with Laurent’s impulsively made decision to actually try and woo Damen is that when it comes to things like romance, Laurent is… awkward. In high school debate team, the other side had once accidentally destroyed his note cards. He’d then managed to verbally trounce them all through improvisation. The judges had called him “eloquent but subtly vicious”. And yet right now Laurent can’t think of the right way to tell Damen that he’d do anything for him, without it sounding A) too intense; or B) not intense enough.

“This place does all day breakfast,” he says instead.

“Oh my God,” Damen replies, “I love you so much.”

-

When he’s finished eating a frankly alarming amount of breakfast food, Damen says, “So, what are you doing tomorrow?”

“I’m open to suggestions.”

“Arts Cinema film?” Damen suggests and Laurent smiles. Back when Laurent was in year twelve and had nothing to do, he and Damen would go to the Arts Cinema near Damen’s apartment and watch whatever the next film showing was. It had made some pretty interesting results, including a documentary on tickling competitions and a movie about space dog-people.  Laurent had spent that period of time trying to not be completely obvious about his crush.

They’d stopped when Damen’s schedule had gotten too full on with his medical degree.

“Are you just hanging out with me so you don’t have to come to terms with the Jokaste thing?” Laurent says, which he hadn’t until this moment realised was something he was concerned about.

“Ah,” Damen says.

“No, that was a stupid question, I don’t know why I asked that.”

“It’s okay,” Damen says, “You have a point. I just don’t know how to word this without sounding awful… I can kind of see now that Jokaste was right when she used to tell me that I didn’t care enough or do enough for our relationship. We were together for three years and I still didn’t want us to live together, and to be honest, I had no plans to get married or anything like that. I did love her, but I don’t think I loved her enough-”

“It’s not your fault, what she did,” Laurent says.

“No, I know that. Even with that, though, I was more upset at Kastor than I was at her. Jokaste and I weren’t even monogamous for the start of our relationship,” that was news to Laurent, “I only suggested that we go exclusive because of how jealous she’d get. She was pretty harsh to Lykaios once,” one of Damen’s exes, “and she tried to stop me from seeing you.”

“What,” Laurent says, eloquently.

“Well, you are kind of intimidatingly beautiful.”

“Oh,” Laurent wills himself not to blush. It’s an incidental compliment at best, no need to react. Except now they’ve stopped talking and Damen is just looking at him, why is he just staring like that?

Damen clears his throat. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I genuinely enjoy spending time with you.”

“Okay,” Laurent says.

“So, six pm tomorrow?” Damen prompts, “Then we can get dinner first.”

“Yes,” Laurent says.

Damen smiles. “I’ll pick you up.”

-

Going to the cinema the next evening turns into Damen crashing at Laurent’s apartment, which of course leads to breakfast the next day and by that point they might as well just keep hanging out.

By the end of the week, Laurent has had seven days straight of looking at Damen’s perfect dimple and kind eyes and he is just about ready to show up to Damen’s place naked and let whatever happens happen.

(Of course, he can’t actually do that, if only because it’s the middle of winter, and naked and freezing is not a good look.)

Instead, on day eight, they go for a fully-clothed afternoon walk around Laurent’s neighbourhood, aimlessly wandering until they find a small bar that looks vaguely familiar.

“This place looks warm,” Damen says, so they go inside.

It’s not until they get to the counter and get approached by the bartender that Laurent realises why he’d recognised the bar.

“Hey it’s you!” The Bartender says, spotting Laurent. “I didn’t think you’d come back here after your brother had to carry you out, man.”

Laurent very briefly considers whether he can start a small fire as a distraction.

The bartender - Eric was it? Or Nick? - then notices Damen and gapes.

“Well, shit,” the Bartender says and Laurent is almost desperate enough to start humming loudly over him. “This is unattainable facebook guy! That rebound message actually worked? Congratulations, man.”

“I’m,” Laurent says, unable to control his own mouth, “going to the bathroom.”

And then he can’t control his legs either, because he just fucking walks off to the bathroom. Fleeing as a panic response is not helpful when it’s leaving the oblivious love of you life with that bartender you once had a drunken heart to heart with.

“Fuck,” Laurent says, quietly, when he’s alone in front of the bathroom mirror. He has no idea what to do, which means what he does is call Auguste.

“Oh wow,” Auguste says, when he picks up. “Does this mean you have time for your poor older brother now?”

“No.” Laurent replies. Then, “Help.”

“What’s wrong? Do you need me to come get you?” Auguste is immediately alert, and it’s part of why Laurent loves him so damn much. He teases but he’s always ready to drop everything if he thinks Laurent might need him.

“No,” Laurent says. “Do you think Damen will stil be cool with spending time with me after he finds out about how I feel? Would that be too awkward?”

There’s a pause. “Oh my God,” Auguste says.

“What?”

“Nothing, I just got a text,” he replies. “Um. I think you should just tell Damen everything and it’ll work out. He’s a good guy.”

Laurent frowns, and because he’s the younger brother he feels like he’s allowed to be at least a little bit petulant. “Will you prepare my passport for me in case it doesn’t work out?”

“Laurent,” Auguste says, “Just stop hiding in the bathroom and talk to him.”

“How did you know I was in the bathroom?”

“ _Just go_ ,” Auguste says, and then because it turns out he actually _is_ the worst, he hangs up.

Someone else chooses that moment to enter the bathroom and so Laurent actually does have to leave. He refuses to have a crisis in a public bathroom with a witness.

Damen is thankfully no longer talking to the bartender when Laurent sees him, but looking down at his phone. _Just act normal_ , Laurent thinks, approaching him.

“Hey, did you end up ordering a drink yet?”

Damen looks up at him. He’s looking at Laurent oddly. Laurent maintains eye contact. Or is he meant to look away? Looking away confirms your guilt, doesn’t it?

“Laurent,” Damen says, quietly. Then he’s raising a hand and softly tracing the line of Laurent’s jaw, as he carefully watches Laurent’s face. Whatever expression Laurent’s making must be the one that he was looking for, because then he’s cupping the hand behind Laurent’s neck and pulling him forward to - _to kiss him._ His heart kicks into overdrive, but he barely notices with the all consuming feeling of Damen’s mouth on his. Damen kisses like he does everything in his life - with confidence and a thrilling amount of focus. He kisses like he has all the time in the world, but he’s also dedicated to committing each slide of their mouths to memory.

Laurent begins to open his mouth just as Damen pulls back. They look at each other, Damen’s hand still placed carefully on Laurent’s neck. Laurent’s hands are down by his sides, and he realises a little stupidly that he hadn’t even taken the opportunity to get his hands on Damen. What an idiot.

“I have been,” Damen says, enunciating each word with importance, “embarrassingly into you for years.”

“What?” Laurent says, faintly.

“I mean, obviously, yeah, I wasn’t very subtle about it when we used to go to the movies all the time, and I was willing to get past it since you clearly weren’t interested. And then you sent that message on facebook and Auguste was encouraging me to talk to you about it, and then we started hanging out again. I just,” Damen frowns. “I’m not trying to make it sound like I only want to spend time with you because I’m into you, you’re one of the best people in my life, and just being your friend makes me happy but. If you’re even considering-”

“Damen, stop,” Laurent says.

Damen stops.

“I’ve been crazy about you since I was like fourteen,” Laurent says. “Kiss me again.”

And he does.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr; find me there as @nikanndros. Title from 'Do I wanna know?' by Arctic Monkeys, which is pretty much the inspiration for this.


End file.
